I think that's the thing I learned at 'Saturday Night Live' - any time I would try and strategize, I would always, always fall on my face. Things worked out when I tried to make it about what I was feeling at that moment and what I was into in that moment of my life.
— Bill Hader
The first time I ever acted was in 'The Glass Menagerie' in high school, and my first line was, 'I didn't know Shakespeare had a sister.'
I worked at a movie theater in Tempe, Arizona, when I went to community college there. And I got fired because a sorority had rented out a theater to watch 'Titanic,' and they were being really rude to me while they were waiting for the movie. So as I tore their tickets, I told them the end of the movie.
When I met Judd Apatow, he told me I should start writing screenplays. They'd be really bad at first, but the more I did it, the better I'd get.
I was a production assistant in the post department on 'The Surreal Life.' And it's been reported before that I was an assistant editor on 'The Surreal Life.' That is not true.
I never resented anybody for being successful.
I had a small part in 'Pineapple Express.'
It is funny that people always assume you have a bigger part in a movie than you actually do. I remember a lot of people thought 'Adventureland' starred me and Kristen Wiig. But we were like, 'No, we're only in the movie for like ten minutes!'
My mom, dad, grandparents, we all do voices.
For our anniversary, my wife and I went to see Godzilla, and then we ate at Barnyard Venice, and it was like, 'We are crazy! The Kardashians have to keep up with us!'
Every two months, I would get an email, 'Skeleton Twins update: still don't have the money!'
If I get a chance to write a comic book or do a voice in an Adult Swim show, I do it. It's much more fulfilling to me and I get to work with people who I'm a fan of.
Before you get to 'SNL,' you have your own sensibility. And when you get to 'SNL,' it's the show's sensibility.
Seth Meyers and I wrote a 'Spider-Man' comic.
I remember I could do - I did Bart Simpson once on the bus. I did, like, a really good Bart Simpson voice on the bus, obviously before I hit puberty. And everybody went, 'Whoa, that sounds just like Bart Simpson.'
The whole thing with animated movies is that it's very hard to get out of your head because it's very moving through each line systematically.
In the U.S., it's like, you start with a great script, and then on set - not everybody, but definitely in the Apatow group - you go off, and you're improvising on camera. So while you're on camera, you're saying things that no one else has ever heard before during the actual take.
My dad was a big Frank Zappa fan, so I remember listening to a lot of Frank Zappa. Girls do not like Frank Zappa.
I hated pitch meetings. Pitch meetings were my least favorite part of the week. I just gave up. I was so terrible at them.
I like watching Kate McKinnon do something - there's a joy in seeing a new move from somebody and going, 'Oh, she can do that.'
When you move to L.A. or New York, it's easy to get a little lost and forget your original goal.
'Vanity Fair' did this grid thing a couple years ago, connecting people who've worked together, and I had the most branches on it or whatever, because I'd worked with so-and-so and so-and-so worked with so-and-so, and I was kind of in the middle.
I love comedy, but it's dramas that stick with me.
The first time I met James Franco, he was dressed like James Dean. He was James Dean, literally, filming a biopic.
You can be the lead in a movie just for the sake of being a lead in a movie, or you can just be in a good movie.
Jason Sudeikis is always chewing gum.
My life is different since I moved back to L.A. from New York, mostly because I have a family and I don't go out.
My wife is the sweetest, most even-keeled person ever. A mood swing to her is like, 'Oh, I'm uncomfortable.'
I'm a huge fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.
'Superbad' was such a personal movie.
I've never met Charlie Sheen.
I - at the table reads, I break constantly. If something is up there that I'm not expecting, I tend to - I can't help myself; I'll start laughing.
In 'Winter's Bone,' it's literally the director and the camera operator. That's it. Just a super-small Kubrick crew. You know what I mean? Like, 8 people.
Let's face it: I look pretty out of shape.
If you watch 'SNL,' any time there's this thing with everyone singing, I'm, like, the one person who just has a straight line of dialogue because I can't sing to save my life.
You know what, I remember being on my T-ball team and telling people about 'Platoon.'
One of the reasons I started working at 'South Park,' actually, was that I wanted to learn how to structure things and how to tell a story.
I kind of romanticized what it was like to be a writer and director when I was in my early twenties. Working as a production assistant knocked that right out of me.
I grew up in a total Pink Floyd house.
At the beginning of each week at 'Saturday Night Live,' we have a full cast meeting where Lorne Michaels introduces the upcoming host.
Paul Rudd is a huge 'Hot Rod' fan.
When you're at your absolute, most exhausted... That's when you have to be at the top of your game.
It doesn't occur to me that I don't drive a cool car until I hang out with Jon Hamm, who picks me up in what looks like a Transformer, and I think, 'Oh, that's what movie stars are driving. I guess I'm not a movie star.'
Turns out typecasting is a real thing.
To be honest, I watch way more dramatic films when I'm chilling at home. I think when you work in comedy, you just want something different in your private life. Makes you feel balanced, I guess.
Sometimes you're working with somebody, and you can tell they're just waiting to say their line.
There's a movie called 'Pod People' that has a weird little anteater alien. That was a good alien.
When you saw Jon Lovitz or Dana Carvey or Phil Hartman doing something, they were acting. It was real acting. Like, they were acting like that person. They weren't like - it wasn't even like they were really trying to go for a laugh, especially in Phil Hartman's case.
I was in a sketch group in L.A., and we were playing, like, backyards in Glendale and stuff. It was pretty ugly because we didn't have any money.
Las Vegas, New Mexico has had a lot of great movies shot there.
